Albion Club wins 4-2, then ties on first day

Albion Club player Adam Vargas moves the ball into LAFC Leterza territory during at the teams’ 1-1 tie.

David Brooks

Albion Club player Adam Vargas moves the ball into LAFC Leterza territory during at the teams’ 1-1 tie.

Albion Club player Adam Vargas moves the ball into LAFC Leterza territory during at the teams’ 1-1 tie. (David Brooks)

Before its opener in the Surf Cup youth soccer tournament Saturday, the Albion Club boys team in the Under-14 age group heard from a former member of the U.S. World Cup team and the holder of the MLS record for goals in a season.

Albion’s Adam Vargas responded by scoring in the opening minute, and then teammate Arturo Alvarez added another goal in the second minute. Each would score twice as Albion prevailed 4-2 over FC Milan of Merced County at the San Diego Polo Club.

Albion later tied LAFC Leterza of La Canada 1-1 in pool play of the 30th annual event, which continues through Monday for elite boys and girls teams from U-10 to U-15.

“That was pretty cool (to score so quickly),” said Vargas, an eighth-grader at Eastlake Middle School. “It picked up my team, and we went on from there.”

Just as Lassiter had instructed.

“He knows everything, so we have to listen to him,” said Alvarez, a freshman at Clairemont High. “We never give up, and we play with heart. We’re excited to be here.”

Two seasons ago, this Albion team had only ties and losses in the Premier League, so it dropped to the AAA level. Then, under Lassiter in his first full campaign last season, Albion went 13-0-1 to move back to the top league.

“First of all, it takes togetherness,” said Lassiter, a U.S. national team member from 1992 to 1999, including the 1998 World Cup squad. “You make sure everyone knows their role, and teach them how to compete together and play the game.”

Lassiter first came to the Surf Cup tournament as a coach with a club from Austin, Texas, two years ago. It was then that he made contacts that led him to San Diego.

“I’m not here just to win games,” said Lassiter, who set the MLS mark with 27 goals in 30 games for Tampa Bay in 1996. “I have enough trophies by myself. I want these boys to take something away from the game whether they win or lose.”

On Albion’s tournament roster are five players in the Olympic Development Program, including striker Memo Bermudez and midfielder Pablo Pelaez, who are slated for junior national team tryouts next month.

“I joined (a year ago) because I liked the coach and the players,” Vargas said. “I knew that we were going to go far. It’s playing with confidence and never giving up, even if things are going bad.”